Posted some screenshots showing just how good the sky can be in XP12 - excited to see how this develops!

Honestly, some of those screenshots look like real photos. Especially the realism of the lighting is incredible, probably the most realistic lighting I've ever seen in a flight sim.

I think they are off to a good start in terms of the new lighting effects, and the clouds show a lot of potential as well.

 

XP lighting and haze much better. The clouds are generally awful. Watch the Captain Canada flight on YouTube. Terrible during cruise. No way I can commit to this sim at present. Also gotta have DLSS and higher FPS. Proper multi-core and optimised. I always said XP is not even close to Beta. Proved true. I also said Austin had got to hire new graphics devs. New eyes, new skills are needed. Things don't change, it suffers.

The haze and lighting in that 3rd shot are indeed spectacular.

There is no doubt that in certain situations and from certain angles XP 12's clouds can look decent. But the overall visuals of them is still very much lacking. There are no two ways about it. It's not a bad start, if and only if, Laminar actually work a lot to improve them and preferably not take 3 years to do so. They definitely need far more detail and the shadowing and highlights is lacking. In my honest opinion, from a holistic point of view MSFS overall looks more 'realistic' despite also being rough around the edges at times (volcanic ash clouds for example). 

You can take some screenshots of either sim and make them look close to reality. Also many screenshots in either sim can make the clouds look like garbage but I find overall MSFS so far does a better general job at depicting reality. It wouldn't be so bad if Laminar had implemented decent ground scenery. That for me is the biggest shame.

The problem is that the Wx being a new addition and definitely a complex thing to develop , they need to just iron out things.

But I am liking what I am seeing. 

Yes there are inconsistencies but that was also the case with MSFS

This is somewhere over the Alps using Google Orthos.

a big step above XP11

29 minutes ago, steve310002 said:

from a holistic point of view MSFS overall looks more 'realistic' despite also being rough around the edges at times (volcanic ash clouds for example). 

You can take some screenshots of either sim and make them look close to reality.

There is enough good in both sims to make them worthwhile.  I get fed up with the constant sim bashing and posts to show the worst all the time.  Here is another one over the UK in XP12 with Orbx TrueEarth - could do with more resolution in the clouds, but I prefer this to the ash clouds in MSFS.  the lighting and haze really adds to the realism/immersion.

Edited September 10, 20223 yr by MrBitstFlyer

Coming out the other side of the weather.  I personally have not seen a sky this realistic in any flight sim.  The lighting, haze and cloud formation looks so real! just a little more cloud resolution would be spectacular!

I think Laminer research have done a great job amalgamating the global grib files/metar data.  It can't be denied from certain angles the clouds are poor, but I am so excited with what I'm seeing in just the first few days!

1 hour ago, steve310002 said:

if and only if, Laminar actually work a lot to improve them and preferably not take 3 years to do so.

They once broke the life weather - CAVOK conditions all the time (the server went from http to https). It took them one month to fix that. 😉

21 minutes ago, UKflyer said:

very nice until you look down 😃

The Orbx terrain, textures and autogen looked great.  

Been saying this since the start.  Xplane 12's photometric rendering engine is really well crafted. There is a whole dev blog on this if you want to read the nitty gritty details https://developer.x-plane.com/2021/11/photometric-lighting-what-is-it-and-why-do-we-need-it/ The blog is really interesting and I think you should definitely read it. There is some amazing tech work going on behind the scenes. I was watching a flight dynamics comparison video between xp12 and msfs from 'vr flight sim guy' and the first thing he commented on was how Xplane 12 looked far more realistic and natural compared to MSFS. I for one always hated the over vibrant colors and often washed out look of msfs. Xplane 12's built in HDR/deferred renderer nails the depth and dynamic range of colors and you get this vivid natural scene which looks very realistic. 

4 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

There is enough good in both sims to make them worthwhile.  I get fed up with the constant sim bashing and posts to show the worst all the time.  Here is another one over the UK in XP12 with Orbx TrueEarth - could do with more resolution in the clouds, but I prefer this to the ash clouds in MSFS.  the lighting and haze really adds to the realism/immersion.

Those vertical lines on the wing 😶

I think they nailed it in terms of lighting and visibility. Most realistic I've ever seen in any sim. No oversaturated images, realistic haze, accurate visbility settings. What a real pilot would actually see in the air.

Good job Laminar!

RL:

XP12:

RL:

XP12:

 

Now that's what I call the "out the window look"  That what should be the aim here. Very convincing.

Edited September 10, 20223 yr by Bob Scott
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Definitely a good step forward.  Nice job Laminar.  Thanks for the pics!

Edited September 10, 20223 yr by Bob Scott
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